Comcast Media Center

Tour Script – FINAL Updated 12-1-11

Note – For internal use only. Do not distribute to visitors. Comcast Media Center (CMC) Background

• 18 year-old company with an extensive client base • Industry-leading provider of video/audio origination and distribution across multiple platforms • Wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast Cable • Two diverse facilities – Dry Creek Campus and Titan Earth Station • DRY CREEK - 305,000 square-foot main facility built in fall of 1993 to meet the vision of advanced service offerings in the cable industry

CMC’s Dry Creek Campus • TITAN EARTH STATION – 35,000 square-foot facility located a few miles southwest of Dry Creek. Home to 36 dedicated uplink antennas, some as large as 13 meters • Both facilities operate on a 24x7x365 basis • DRY CREEK – mixed-use, Tier 4 (electrical/mechanical), highly secure facility operating under best practices as published by the MPAA

Dry Creek Campus – Fast Facts

• Retail office space leased to outside customers housed in the building. Some of these include: DMX and iNDEMAND CMC’s Titan Earth Station • Operates under three independent facility systems (e.g. heating/cooling) Building A, Building B, and Building C • 24x7x365 security and monitoring • CMC currently serves more than 400 cable MSOs representing 1,200 regional headend sites, originates 87 linear video and 110 digital audio channels, handles over 20,000 sporting and special events each year, transmits 1,620 discrete feeds, and monitors 1,620 signals daily • The Operational Area we are about to enter is built on top of one big configurable computer floor. The walls only go from the floor to ceiling, thus may be expanded and contracted into different configurations as needed without major construction. All wiring is beneath the floor

Enter Tour Here – doors to Ops Area… Stop #1: Comcast Regional Sports Room (CRS)

Note: Room currently in state of transition

Description: • Centralized, multi-channel master control environment devoted to regional sports.

Services: • Full master control activities for the linear Comcast Sports Net Southeast Comcast Regional Sports Room (Atlanta) HD/SD regional sports network as well as alternate programming for blackout requirements • Former home to five Comcast SportsNets. The other four recently transitioned operations to NBCU in New Jersey.

Technical Features: • Hybrid HD/SD control room • Built to accommodate 24 simultaneous inbound feeds, enhanced graphics, live event production, integration of CMC-originated studio elements, and real-time score updates from sports subscription services • In-room live ingest capabilities and live commercial insertion • Connectivity to other key areas of Dry Creek facility • CRS is a good example of how we separated the terminal equipment from the playback area before the Central Equipment Room was built

Customer Benefits: • Quick-turn capability with direct-to-disk ingest for replay or VOD/multiplatform distribution. Capture and quick pitch for CSS today • Highly cost effective environment – accordian staffing approach • Can operate all six channels from one position through automated processes during non-peak periods

Interesting Fact: • Although the room may look empty, there is a lot of signal going through it. We still handle occasional acquisition and transmission turns for the SportsNets that relocated. Stop #2: Central Equipment Room

Description: • Enclosed broadcast data center with glass windows on one side for viewing • Heartbeat of the entire CMC operational facility

Technical Features: • Data center-grade broadcast equipment room • Houses all the terminal equipment in appropriate conditions for humidity and power • Expandable space - continues to grow as we add and upgrade networks • Three power sources for redundancy Central Equipment Room Stop #3: NHL/Versus Master Control Environment

Description: • Centralized, multi-channel master control environment dedicated to the NHL Network

Services: • Full master control activities for NHL Network and NHL Alt • Temporary home to Versus Network, which will remain in place until after NHL Network Primary Master Control the SuperBowl. Then, Versus will transition to NBC facility in New Jersey Environment and rebrand as NBC Sports (NBC’s national sports channel). Both NHL rooms will shift around to the right at that time.

Technical Features: • Includes multiple pods to support alternate programming for different markets where sports are blacked out • Highly automated • Capability to support 16 inbound feeds (soon to be 20) • Dedicated live-ingest and encode area. Taped and file-based ingest handled out of MAC. • Area to left is for live feed acquisition, segmentation and basic editing. All View of full NHL Network Environment prep of material for air. showing Alt Channel Customer Benefits: • Workflow modeled in a sports newsroom-style • Quick-turn capability with direct-to-disk ingest, if required • Acquisition, editing and segmentation often being handled as content is going to air

Interesting Fact: • Room also has the ability to support 3D events if desired. Versus hosted a 3D version of the NHL Winter Classic on New Year’s Eve

Encode Stations Stop #4: iN DEMAND Networks Master Control

Note: Do not take visitors into PPV side of room due to adult content

Description (new room): • Dedicated first-generation, multi-format HD/SD environment for iNDEMAND Networks digital PPV and live sports channels. iN DEMAND Live Sports Room • New environment completed in 2011

Services (new room): • Digital PPV (1 HD/7SD PPV channels, 3 SD barker channels) • Live Sports Room (18 HD/24 SD channels = 42 total)

Technical Features: • Consolidated feed acquisition, live record, and live event coordination in a common functional area • Streamlined workflows • HD infrastructure (iND growing to HD distribution model) iN DEMAND Digital PPV Room • Increased capacity for sports replays • Connectivity with CMC’s MAC, acquisition and transmission platforms

Customer Benefits: • Improved content quality on both HD and SD with move to all-digital HD environment • Expanded functional capabilities with multi-format HD/SD room • Increased scalability and operational versatility (for future business changes and peaks in programming requirements) • Reduced operational risk with increased uptime performance • Takes advantage of CMC core facility infrastructure upgrades and capabilities without further investment Stop #5: Xfinity 3D Master Control Room

Note: You may allow visitors to try the different 3D glasses to view the content. However, do not let them touch anything on the console.

Description: • Dedicated master control environment to support the Xfinity 3D channel. Comcast offers the courtesy service to customers who have the appropriate set-top box and 3D-capable TV set • Completed 1Q 2011

Technical Features: • Operates in an unstaffed, highly automated model • Utilizes the latest “channel-in-a-box” technology • When there are special events, staff operates environment • Can handle capture, quick-turn and redistribution to VOD Stop #6: CMC Disaster Recovery Room

Description: • Multi-channel environment dedicated to short-term disaster recovery and longer-term Photo Placeholder business continuity. Various service levels available per client needs. Services: • Provide evergreen DR activities for Comcast SportsNets Chicago, Mid-Atlantic, Philadelphia, New York and the YES Network. Ability to ramp up for longer business continuity if required • Provide hosting services for highly automated Golf Channel business continuity and storage systems. Golf Channel delivers their files to servers and archive housed here and remotely manages mirrored playlist. CMC troubleshoots the system and handles maintenance activities.

Technical Features: • CMC can recover origination and/or uplink for the services listed above • Digital acquisition of commercial content • Ability to acquire live feeds via various methods and formats for rapid integration into recovered signal path (to maintain revenue generation).

Customer Benefits: • Support for multiple levels ranging from evergreen content playout to full master control operations to acting as an “always on” transmission back-up site • Rapid reconfiguration and validation while transitioning between various operational states • Highly secure facilities supported through a robust infrastructure with the power, cooling, and sustainability to be considered one of the most reliable sites in the broadcast world • Metro Denver region is the ideal location to host disaster recovery and business continuity solutions

Interesting Fact:

• CMC has gone active a number of times, most recently during Hurricane Irene for YES Network. DR activities for C-SPAN handled out of CDOC where content is acquired from archive location in Indiana and turned for uplink. Other transmission-only DR handled out of Titan directly. Stop #7: Training Room

Note: Unless open, don’t take visitors into this environment. Just Photo Placeholder mention.

Description: • Fully functionality environment for training new staff on existing systems, all staff on new systems, or testing new software releases or hardware technology

Technical Features: • CMC thoroughly trains all operations personnel prior to a new channel launch or upon recent employment • CMC training programs are designed to bridge gaps in new or existing personnel knowledge and skills sets, ensuring confidence and clarity regarding specific roles and tasks required

Customer Training Benefits: • CMC operators become well versed in all the phases of content acquisition, traffic integration, playout and recovery, monitoring, and distribution. It’s important for operators to understand how these roles interrelate in the playout environment. • Operators also become familiar with individual channel schedules and respective on-air content to further recognize and respond quickly to any programming discrepancies prior to air Stop #8: Advance Playback Room

Description: • Multi-channel master control environment designed for Advance Playback (AP). Primary playlists for each channel run three hours in advance of true air time, then cached into delay server for replay at the scheduled time

Services: • Full master control activities for Ovation, YouToo (formerly American Life Network and 1st-ever social TV channel), PiXL (formerly Faith and Family), Resort and Residence, currently preparing to launch Real Hip Hop Network

Technical Features: • AP approach allows operators to monitor a “preview” of program signal. Should Advance Playback Station there be a deviation from scheduled programming or a system failure resulting in program interruption, the operator can mark the time of the discrepancy, recover the services, and cover the service from a parallel real-time program path at true air time. • Unique heads-up display for cache appears on top screens; real-time back-up on middle screens; triggers on bottom screens • One master control operator can manage up to 10 channels • CDOC can route feeds to this room, so operators can manage live events • Can also handle commercial insertion and breaks – punched up as sources at pod • Media prep/traffic stations appear in back of room, engineer QC positions in center

Customer Benefits: • Greater uptime/reliability • Lower risk Heads-Up Display • Streamlined staffing models • Strikes perfect balance between operational overhead and on-air performance – one of the best performance, per dollar models in the program origination industry

Interesting Fact: Winner of 2011 Broadcast Excellence Award for Station Automation Stop #9: Integrated Digital Operations Center (IDOC)

Note: This environment is in a state of transition. Do not enter during tours unless necessary.

Description:

IDOC • Dynamic, multi-channel master control environment

Services: • Full master control activities for up to six linear networks • Currently houses TV One (HD and SD simulcast – two discrete channels), and a flexible position available for quick or temporary launches

Technical Features: • Designed to handle increased volume of feeds, live events and advanced graphics

Customer Benefits: • Advanced graphics • Self-contained, fully functional area that can be used for testing or as quick-launch location.

Interesting Fact: • With the NBC channels migrating back to New Jersey, CMC is using spaces such as IDOC to consolidate existing networks and free up space for new opportunities. Stop #10: Content Distribution Operations Center (CDOC) and Dry Creek Earth Station

Note: You will need to knock on door to gain access to CDOC during tours. View antennas through glass doors at end of hall.

Description: • CMC’s central hub for coordinating all HD,SD, and 3D occasional fiber and satellite-based video and audio signals coming into or out of Dry Creek CDOC Services: • Coordinates more than 20,000 occasional satellite and fiber feeds on average per year

Technical Features: • On-site teleport primarily used for occasional feeds • Eight antennas with up or downlink capabilities, plus 21 downlink-only antennas • C-band and Ku-band formats • HD/SD/3D, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 • Access to most major national fiber providers including Level 3 Vyvx® network • Video or audio sources assigned or reassigned to any CMC ingest, playout, or Dry Creek Earth Station production environment through miles of inter-campus connectivity

Customer Benefits: • High-volume capacity • Quick-turn flexibility (can handle more than 82 simultaneous feeds) • 24/7 availability • Extensive monitoring

Interesting Facts: • CDOC was a semi-finalist for a 2008 Broadcasting Excellence Award • CDOC staff is the most versatile at the CMC. For their function, they have to know various disciplines – RF, video, audio, telephony, etc. Stop #11: Titan Reference Note: Show view out door of Dry Creek occasional antenna farm. Reference Titan via photo on wall next to door. State brief Titan facts. Description: • Titan Earth Station – 35,000 square-foot facility located 12 miles SW of Dry Creek • Handles all of CMC’s 24x7 dedicated transmission services. Constant antenna repositioning and reconfiguring for occasional-use feeds presents potential risk to these services. Therefore, we separate them and transport the signals from Dry Titan Earth Station Creek to Titan for uplink as needed.

Services: • Titan currently transmits more than 1,620 full-time, dedicated broadcast video and audio channels

Technical Features: • 36 dedicated uplink antennas, some as large as 13 meters • Supports Ku-band and C-band as well as a variety of transmission encoding formats • Redundant connectivity to/from Dry Creek for transfer of signals as necessary • Facility infrastructure features a triple-redundancy scheme Titan Control Room • Custom encryption/compression available (including military level)

Customer Benefits: • High service uptime through infrastructure reliability, automated redundancy schemes and preventative processes • Flexibility – rapid antenna restoral paths to quickly offload services to spare antennas if necessary • On-site support for compression and transmission • Complies with all FCC regulations governing earth station processes

Interesting Fact: • CMC sits on the 105th meridian in the center of the domestic arc with visibility into both the Atlantic and Pacific Operating Regions. This provides streamlined, cost- effective one-hop satellite transmission. Stop #12: Operations Management Center (OMC)

Description: • CMC’s central communications and monitoring hub staffed 24x7x365

Monitors: • More than 1,620 video, audio, data, and product applications that originate or transition through the CMC • BMS – Building Management System – for the health of our infrastructure OMC (power, generators) • Weather here at CMC in Denver and at CMC2 in Atlanta for health of the signal and atmosphere • Space weather for interference potential, meteors, etc. Specifically monitors geomagnetic storms (solar flares), solar radiation storms (elevated radiation), radio blackouts, and NOAA space weather scale (impact of space weather on people and systems)

Also acts as Single Point for: • Outage management and customer escalation • Maintenance activities • Daily activity reports distribution • Performance metrics evaluation

Technical Features: • 10 fully-functional work stations equipped the advanced diagnostic and monitoring tools to clearly understand customer impact in field • Increased reliability for on-site monitoring headend • New configuration features less video screens (monitoring runs in background) and a more sophisticated monitoring system that further reduces detection time. Screens can be punched up at any time • Uses a highly effective, facility-wide “all-call” system to quickly isolate and troubleshoot issues for system restoral

Customer Benefits: • High service uptime • Streamlined communication and escalation processes Stop #13: Data Center 3 (up steps, on right – across from Eng Lab)

Note: Cannot see into data centers – just reference.

Description: • CMC houses three on-site data centers covering over 15,000 total square feet for commercial customer-related business and internal Comcast applications

CMC Data Center Example Services: • CMC’s data centers support internal Comcast operations as well as commercial playout, transmission, and co-location hosting customers

Features: • Airflow management and heat removal through modified hot/cold cabinet and rack layout, blanking panels, and modified cabling • Computer room air conditioner (CRAC) cooling or localized in-row cooling is utilized appropriately for given loads • Air-loss prevention in floor cabling through installation of KoldLocks for all floor cutouts • Increased monitoring and management through BMS (Building Management System) to further monitor CRAC, power distribution, temperature, and humidity • Currently updated procedures and guidelines for working in live data center environments

Customer Benefits: • Maximum cooling through hot and cold aisle configuration, specifically cabinet and aisle layout design. • Safety, security, and reliability through adherence to best industry practices and internal policies • Capacity for high-density computer systems through such consolidation techniques as server virtualization and Vmware as well as use of more efficient HP blade servers Stop #14: Applied Research Lab

Note: Applied Research Labs not available for all tours. Please contact AE: Austin Vrbas, Chuck Wester, or Paul Egenhofer to schedule.

Description: • CMC currently houses three on-site advanced engineering labs, covering 5,500 square feet of space, at the Dry Creek facility. • The Applied Research team works within these spaces to improve products and services or move ideas from strategic initiatives to ready-for-market solutions

Services: • Analyze and evaluate new encoding, delivery and performance-measurement technologies for HD, 3D, video for iPhone/mobile, and interactive TV applications • Test and validate new technologies based on video compression standards and meeting evolving regulatory mandates such as CALM Act, Closed Captioning, etc. • Create demos for various sales and executive-level events

Interesting Facts about the Applied Research Team: • Works on a regular basis with various standards boards on the latest industry specifications • Recognized industry experts in video service encoding • Publishers of novel, industry-leading specifications for media delivery equipment and systems Stop #15: Media Aggregation Center (MAC)

Note: Highly secure area (MPAA) – not available for all tours. Please contact appropriate personnel prior (Paul Catterson) to tour for access.

Description: • Multi-purpose facility handling ingest and processing of digital file-based content in multiple formats for archival and distribution purposes Typical MAC User Station Services: • MAC – CMC’s centralized and highly automated media acquisition and ingest center for file-based program, commercial, and promotional content. • VOD encode – CMC aggregates, encodes, QCs, and delivers more than 10,000 HD, SD and 3D VOD assets per month to over 56 million VOD-enabled households • Dub/Overflow Feed Record • Next up - promotion delivery services

Technical Features: • Supports multiple CODECS and HD/SD/3D resolutions • Core system equipment housed in Central Equipment Room

Customer Benefits: • Designed to improve overall speed and quality of content acquisition and processing • Improves QC through file-based analysis tools • Streamline processing and delivery of content to third-party captioning services

Interesting Fact: • CMC recognized as a video encoding expert, establishing best practices for Comcast and other industry organizations • CMC stores 800 terabytes of linear content in the archive (approx 275,000 clips) • Performs more than 120,000 encodes annually (11,000 hours) Stop #16: Post-Production/Editing Suites (new photos to come)

Description: • Multiple on-site HD video and audio post-production suites featuring Avid and FinalCut Pro video edit and ProTools audio post edit systems • Service in-house and commercial customers with a wide and complex range of content editing tasks such as creating graphics, adding squeezes, formatting programs, audio sweetening, or embedding elements within content

FinalCut Pro Edit Room Edit Suites (in order of tour path): • Suite #1 – ProTools and Avid Media Composer systems • Suite #6 – The sound-isolated recording room (“dead room”) and Avid Adrenaline system • Suite #2 - Avid Symphony and ProTools systems • Suite #4 – Graphic Suite with Adobe applications and Blu Ray HD disk authoring • Suite #5 – FinalCut Pro and Avid Symphony systems • Suite #3 – Avid Symphony system • Suite #7 – Primary FinalCut Pro room for client use

Other Technical Features: • Emmy® Award-winning editors on staff • Avid ISIS centralized storage Avid Symphony Nitris HD Edit Room • Avid Airspeed live HD/SD live ingest • HD monitoring and QC gear in every suite • ISDN • Outputs in multiple file and tape formats

Customer Benefits: • Achieve time and cost savings by taking advantage of all services (origination, editing, transmission) housed under one roof • Nearly 20 years experience Stop #17: Production Studios

Description: • Fully equipped high-definition production studios covering nearly 10,000 feet

Technical Features: • Studio West 1 - 6400 square feet Studio West 1 • 2nd E3 Stage – nearly 4,000 square feet • Multi-camera capabilities with 4 SONY HDC 1500 L cameras • Additional features available upon request • Crew and payroll services • Make-up and green room • In-house sets, props and catering

Customer Benefits: Control Room • Adjacent control room capable of single or HD multi-camera productions • Live, live-to-tape and live ingest capabilities • Extensive list of on-site resources Denver Skyline

Metro Denver

Conveniently located between both U.S. coasts and at the exact midpoint between Tokyo and Frankfurt, Denver is positioned favorably as a major transportation hub serving growing world markets. Both CMC facilities are less than 25 miles from Denver International Airport (DIA). With direct flights to major international cities, including those in Canada and Mexico, DIA ranks as the 10th busiest airport in the world. The metro Denver region boasts many benefits for businesses:

• Minimal risk of natural disasters compared to locations on • Low business costs East, West, and Southern Coasts • Most educated city in U.S. according • Semi-arid climate with short-lived winter storms, averaging to U.S. Census just 8-18 inches of precipitation annually • Pool of talented and previously trained • Diverse power grid to both the East and West Coasts video and audio broadcast professionals • Mountain time zone location on the 105th meridian – largest • Growing diverse population in the City and U.S. region with one-bounce satellite transmission and County of Denver – 11.1% African-American, communication with both U.S. coasts, Europe, South America, 31.7% Hispanic, 2.8% Asian, 1.3% Other and Asia in same business day